Emily Dickinson Lexicon

GLA'CIER, n. [Fr. glaciere, an ice-house, from glace, It. ghiaccio, ice. See Glacial.]

A field or immense mass of ice, formed in deep but elevated valleys, or on the sides of the Alps or other mountains. These masses of ice extend many miles in length and breadth, and remain undissolved by the heat of summer. Coxe. Glacier theory; the theory that the frigid and temperate zones were covered with ice during the ice period, and that by the agency of this ice during its formation and dissolution, the loose materials on the earth's surface, (known as diluvium,) were transported and accumulated.